Where Islam spreads, freedom dies

This week I'm going to Granada to attend the Día de la Toma [Day of the Capture] celebrations on January 2, commemorating the moment on the same day in 1492 when Boabadil, the last Mohammedan ruler in western Europe, surrendered the city to Ferdinand and Isabel. As usual, leftists are protesting against this event.

The juventud andaluza independentista, feminista y comunista [Separatist, Feminist & Communist Andalusian Youth] want to make a call to reject with all our energies the act that, as every year, is going to take place on the next 2nd of January 2014 in Granada, to commemorate the Castilian conquest of the city.

We indicate our most passionate contempt for the Town Council of Granada, which consents to and promotes such displays of hatred and contempt for the history of Andalusia, favouring the presence of neo-fascist organisations and groups, who consider this event to represent "the expulsion of the last Moors from Spain."

The festival of the 2nd of January, restored by the Franco government, shows a lack of respect for all the Working People of Andalusia, but especially the people of Granada. We demand that the Granada city government restore the 25 of May, the day of Mariana Pineda [tn: Spanish 19th century left-winger], as a local festival.

Finally, we call on all the youth of the Working People of Andalusia to come en masse to the gathering against the official acts of "The Toma", which will take place on the same 2nd of January at 10 in morning in the Plaza del Carmen.

The Granada Open Platform invites you to the alternative act "For the Dialogue between Cultures, No to the Toma", which will be held on the 2nd of January 2014 in the Fundación Euroárabe [EuroArab Foundation], and in which José Chamizo de la Rubia, ex-Defender of the Andalusian People [tn: a kind of public ombudsman], and president of the Volunteer Association for Another World.

A message of support sent by Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former director general of UNESCO and president of the Fundación Cultura de Paz [Culture of Peace Foundation].

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Jewish Congress (EJC) offered on Tuesday to help European soccer's governing body UEFA and the English FA to fight anti-Semitism in the sport following Nicolas Anelka's "quenelle" salute.

It has also called on the soccer authorities to ban Anelka, 34, who is being investigated by the English FA, for the gesture.

The former France striker celebrated the first of the two goals he scored in West Bromwich Albion's 3-3 draw at West Ham United on Saturday by making the gesture, made famous by the French comedian Dieudonne, which is linked to anti-Semitism.

The 34-year-old Anelka promised his club on Monday he would not repeat it in future.

But EJC president Doctor Moshe Kantor has written to both Michel Platini, the UEFA president, and Greg Dyke, the chairman of the English FA, saying what Anelka did means there can be no let-up in the fight to keep anti-Semitism out of soccer.

"We offer the co-operation of the European Jewish Congress and are ready to discuss practical ideas and suggestions for combating anti-Semitism and racism in football," said Kantor, who called for Anelka to be banned.

"There is an urgent need for action to confront this phenomenon as it relates to football and we stand ready to assist you in combating this intolerable hate.

"At the European Jewish Congress, we regularly receive reports of attacks on Jews, whether verbal or physical, which also include acts of anti-Semitism at matches involving English and European football clubs," he added.

"Mr Anelka's recent action is a reminder that hatred of Jews in the stands can very easily find its way right on to the pitch.

"Similarly, the legitimisation of anti-Semitic acts by players who are supposed to act as role models for youth is a particularly dangerous phenomenon, and one that is not restricted to Mr. Anelka alone."

Thousands of photographs have emerged on the internet showing people using the quenelle in what the EJC calls "sensitive sites" like the Auschwitz death camp, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and in front of the Toulouse Jewish school where four people, including three school children, were massacred last March.

"This amply demonstrates that the salute is a means of provocation towards Jews," added Kantor.

The FA, UEFA and world governing body FIFA, have long worked closely with anti-racism organisations like FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) and the English "Kick It Out" campaign to fight against racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia in soccer.

The EJC is a democratically-elected body which represents European Jewish communities throughout Europe.

The European Jewish Congress is also behind the proposal for the deeply sinister "European framework national statute for the promotion of tolerance". I didn't know it was "democratically elected". That extends the culpability, assuming it is true.

For 14 years Lower Saxony's Justice Minister has shown mercy in our prisons at Christmas time: prisoners who have behaved well and only have a month left on their sentences are released early.

Does this practice discriminate against Muslims, to whom Christmas means nothing?

Now a politician has been first to raise the question of a second date for premature releases: the regional member of parliament Belit Onay (32, Greens) wants a "Ramadan Pardon".

In his view, prisoners should also get early release before the Muslim fasting period. Onay: "There are many prisoners with Muslim beliefs. For them it would be an important contribution to resocialisation if they could spend Ramadan with their families. That could reduce re-offending."

...This year 88 prisoners were released early from Lower Saxony's prisons for Christmas - regardless of belief. Onay: "At Ramadan, a pardon should be granted for all religions."

Google has deactivated the islamsticker@gmail Gmail account politician Geert Wilders was using to spread his anti-Islam stickers. The deactivation was probably prompted by the many complaints Wilders’ umpteenth anti-Islam initiative had prompted.

It was the politician himself who reported via Twitter on Boxing Day that his account had been closed. “Unbelievable; Google just blocked the account. It seems Mohammed Rabbae’s complaint was successful,” he tweeted. Rabbae had complained at Google that Wilders was abusing its service.

His complaint –on behalf of the National Council of Moroccans- had been among many complaints that were lodged against Wilders after he came out with his anti-Island sticker a week ago; it read “Islam is a lie. Mohamed is a criminal. The Koran is poison.”
The politician claimed the sticker was not meant as an action against Muslims as the majority of people of this faith is not violent. He has since launched a new account where people may order his sticker.

Now he has created a new email address for those who want to buy the sticker.
On Friday, Geert Wilders created a new email address for people who want to buy the so called ‘Islam sticker’. An earlier account, islamsticker@gmail.com, was blocked by email provider Gmail (Google) following a complaint by the ‘National Council for Moroccans’. It's a lot more difficult to submit a complaint at the new address: islamsticker@islamsticker.org.

These are extracts from a letter published in the magazine of the German police trade union, written by Tania Kambouri, a policewoman of Greek parentage who was born and grew up in Germany.

Like most cities in the Ruhr, Bochum also has a high proportion of immigrants, especially in the inner city. My colleagues and I are daily confronted by immigrants committing crimes, the majority of them Muslims (Turks, Arabs, Lebanese, etc.), who do not show the slightest respect for the police. For them, the lack of respect starts in childhood.

We are insulted on the street every day when we show ourselves, for example. When deployed, a discussion in a quiet tone is often impossible. As a female immigrant, I, especially, have more problems with most immigrants than my German colleagues. Foreign citizens mostly see me as one of them and thus as a traitor. Either they don't deign to look at me or speak to me in their language, generally to gain more sympathy. And several times each day I'm asked: are you a Turk?

I often take home with me the stress I experience when dealing with immigrants who are committing crimes. Over the long term, something like that can only lead to physical and/or psychological illness.

An example: not long ago I drove with a female colleague in response to a request for help. The caller was a Turkish man. When he saw two women, he became very loud and spoke to me in an unbelievably inappropriate tone, telling me to "come here". I replied telling him I could also go away again and he told me I should do that. I reported the citizen's behaviour to the dispatch centre. At the same time he called there and said he wanted only male police. The dispatch centre discussed it with us and we agreed that we would drive there again. If the citizen acted in the same way, the deployment was finished as far as we were concerned. That is what happened. The citizen saw us and started shouting at us in a snotty way. That was the end of the deployment. Quite right too.

My German friends and colleagues often say they no longer feel at home in their own country. I can confirm that I, as an immigrant, no longer feel at ease in many city districts as a result of the excessive number of foreign criminals. My German colleagues are reluctant to an express an opinion about the foreign criminals because straightaway the same old "Nazi" tune starts up again.

...The police are becoming ever more helpless. Individual officers can impose limits, but without backing from politicians or the courts these will increasingly lapse.

The events reported by colleagues or the media (for example: patrol car drives slowly and is attacked by immigrants in Berlin), are incredible. It cannot be that we, as police officers, barely have any rights left and have to fear being sanctioned every time we assert ourselves and take some legal(!) step against a immigrant who has committed a crime - whether it be physical force or not. It cannot be that such people who pay no heed the Constitution and have set up an (illegal) parallel society here - which is autonomous in every respect - are left to do whatever they want here, because they have nothing to do with the German state.

On a busy street near the Dutch Parliament, three white musicians in blackface regale passersby with holiday tunes about the Dutch Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, and his slave, Black Pete.

Many native Dutchmen view dressing up as Black Pete in December as a venerable tradition, but others consider it a racist affront to victims of slavery. With Holland marking the 150th anniversary of abolition this year, the controversy over Black Pete has reached new heights. Hundreds demonstrated against the custom in Amsterdam last month, and more than 2 million signed a petition supporting it.

Through it all, Dutch Jews – some of whom celebrate their own version of the Black Pete custom, called “Hanukklaas” – have largely remained silent.

But that changed in October, when Lody van de Kamp, an unconventional Orthodox rabbi, wrote a scathing critique about it on Republiek Allochtonie, a Dutch news-and-opinion website. “The portrayal of ‘Peter the slave’ dates back to a period when we as citizens did not meet the social criteria that bind us today,” Van de Kamp wrote.

Speaking out against Black Pete is part of what van de Kamp calls his social mission, an effort that extends to reminding Dutch Jews of their ancestors’ deep involvement in the slave trade. In April, he is set to publish a book about Dutch Jewish complicity in the slave trade, an effort he hopes will sensitize Jews to slavery in general and to the Black Pete issue in particular.

“I wrote the book and I got involved in the Black Pete debate because of what I learned from my Dutch predecessors on what it means to be a rabbi – namely, to speak about social issues, not only give instructions on how to cook on Shabbat,” van de Kamp told JTA.

“Money was earned by Jewish communities in South America, partly through slavery, and went to Holland, where Jewish bankers handled it,” he said. “Non-Jews were also complicit, but so were we. I feel partly complicit.”

Though he holds no official position in the Dutch Jewish community, van de Kamp, 65, is among the best-known Orthodox rabbis in the Netherlands, a status earned through his several books on Dutch Jewry and frequent media appearances.

His forthcoming book, a historical novel entitled “The Jewish Slave,” follows an 18th-century Jewish merchant and his black slave as they investigate Dutch-owned plantations north of Brazil in the hope of persuading Jews to divest from the slave trade. In researching the book, van de Kamp discovered data that shocked him.

In one area of what used to be Dutch Guyana, 40 Jewish-owned plantations were home to a total population of at least 5,000 slaves, he says. Known as the Jodensavanne, or Jewish Savannah, the area had a Jewish community of several hundred before its destruction in a slave uprising in 1832. Nearly all of them immigrated to Holland, bringing their accumulated wealth with them.

Some of that wealth was on display last year in the cellar of Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue, part of an exhibition celebrating the riches of the synagogue’s immigrant founders. Van de Kamp says the exhibition sparked his interest in the Dutch Jewish role in slavery, which was robust.

On the Caribbean island of Curacao, Dutch Jews may have accounted for the resale of at least 15,000 slaves landed by Dutch transatlantic traders, according to Seymour Drescher, a historian at the University of Pittsburgh. At one point, Jews controlled about 17 percent of the Caribbean trade in Dutch colonies, Drescher said.

Jews were so influential in those colonies that slave auctions scheduled to take place on Jewish holidays often were postponed, according to Marc Lee Raphael, a professor of Judaic studies at the College of William & Mary.

In the United States, the Jewish role in the slave trade has been a matter of scholarly debate for nearly two decades, prompted in part by efforts to refute the Nation of Islam’s claim that Jews dominated the Atlantic slave trade. But in Holland, the issue of Jewish complicity is rarely discussed.

“This is because we in the Netherlands only profited from slavery but have not seen it in our own eyes,” van de Kamp said. “The American experience is different.”

The slavery issue is not van de Kamp’s first foray into controversial territory. In Jewish circles, he has a reputation as a contrarian with a penchant for voicing anti-establishment views.

That image was reinforced last year when he spoke out against a compromise the Dutch Jewish community had reached with the government over kosher slaughter. Designed to avert a total ban, the compromise placed some restrictions on kosher slaughter that Holland’s chief rabbis said did not violate Jewish law. Van de Kamp denounced the deal as an unacceptable infringement on religious freedom.

More recently, he angered Dutch activists by suggesting that vilifying Dutch Muslims helped generate anti-Semitism. He also advocated dialogue with professed Muslim anti-Semites at a time when Jewish groups were calling for their prosecution.

But his reputation as a maverick rabbi in a consensus–oriented community has also endeared van de Kamp to some supporters.

“He is in a league of his own,” says Bart Wallet, an Amsterdam University historian and expert on Jewish history. “From the sideline, he is free to criticize and does not have to conform to anything.”

The terrorist network Al Qaida had deployed between 4000 and 5000 combatants with passports from a Schengen area country in Syria, according to Belgian intelligence, it was reported yesterday by the French-language newspaper Le Soir.

In addition, according to Belgian intelligence, a group of jihadists from the Flemish part of Belgian, who were trained in Syria, participated in at least one attack committed in Iraq in recent weeks, the Belgian newspaper explained in its digital edition last night.

According to a Belgian intelligence source, "Al Qaeda has between 4000 and 5000 jihadist combatants with Schengen country passports deployed in Syria".

Belgium calculates that around 200 people with Belgian passports are or have been fighting in Syria, of whom around 20 have died and between 120 and 140 are still fighting in the Arab country, according to Le Soir.

Somalia also continues to attract Belgian combatants and it is known that they have acted in Kenya, given that Belgian sent an investigative commission to interrogate three Belgian nationals arrested in connection with the attack on a shopping centre in Nairobi and who were "en route" to Mogadishu.

200 Syrians have camped out in the Plaza de España in Melilla, next to the immigration offices, demanding to be transferred to Europe.

Despite everything, he declares that they would be safer in Syria than in CETI [tn: 'refugee' reception centre in Melilla], given that the presence of the Algerians disturbs the tranquillity of the rest of the immigrants. According to Mohamed, supported by some of his compatriots, when they are in the centre they have to take great care in order to avoid being the victim of robberies, altercations or something worse, because, according to what he says, when night falls the Algerians enter the bedrooms where their wives and daughters are sleeping.

According to the Syrians, the Algerians even have "long knives". "Where are our rights? Is this Europe? I'm better off in my own country," protests Mohamed.

Many Europeans in the Counterjihad movement have their view of what is happening to us still shaped by the Bat Ye'or's book Eurabia, tracing a supposed conspiracy between EU officials and Arab states to islamise and Arabise Europe. She has also written other books about the more ancient past. Realistically, most people won't be able to devote this time and effort required to properly evaluate books like these. It's important to know from the outset, therefore, whether an author is reliable or not.

So let's examine a recent screed ("The Nazi Inheritance" or "Inherited Nazism") Ye'or published on the website Dreuz.info.

The European Union is moribund.

It faces the absolute detestation of the European peoples, who blame it for all the ills that are currently overwhelming them: subversion of their values and culture by a nihilist multiculturalism, destruction of national identity, planned suppression of history, impregnation of Europe by a Palestiniast ideology that combines jihadism, antisemitism and rejection of the non-Muslim, dissolution of social homogeneity by an open-doors immigration that imposes its own requirements, economic chaos.

The EU, however, continues to rage, like Hitler in his bunker, against its primordial victim: Israel. 40 years ago, and most explicitly in its Declaration of Venice in June 1980, it invented "the Palestinian people" on the demand of the Secretary General of the Arab League, Chedli Klibi in his press conference in Paris on 6 December 1979.

The first paragraph is promising enough, but then the text, like her book, lapses into a borderline-psychotic anti-European hatefest, in which she accuses Europeans of wishing to "complete the Shoah" by putting diplomatic pressure on Israel. By claiming EU officials do not represent the peoples of Europe on this issue, she limits her hatred to them rather than ordinary Europeans, a bit like the unconvincing distinction we sometimes hear made between Zionists and Jews. In fact, this is one issue where EU officials probably do represent the will of the people. Most Europeans do sympathise with the "Palestinians". I don't share their sentiment myself, but I don't deny that it exists. I think it arises largely from historical ignorance and a natural human tendency to sympathise with whoever appears to be the underdog.

Ye'or here claims that the EU invented the "Palestinian people" 40 years ago, which would be 1973, but she then specifies the years 1980 and 1979 when this was supposedly done.

To evaluate this claim, I went to a newspaper archive and did a search on "Palestinian people".

In the Times newspaper, on September 26, 1969, I found the following article, titled "Islamic states urge Israeli withdrawal":

After three days of debates marred by a serious incident between Pakistan and India, the Islamic conference decided today that all Muslim states would help the Palestinian people to recover their "stolen rights".

On March 16, 1973, there is an article titled "China pledges support for Palestinians":

Dr Zayyat, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, today wound up a four-day visit to Peking during which China renewed pledges of strong support for the Arabs in their conflict with Israel.

There are many other similar articles.

Resolution 3236 of the UN General Assembly, dated 22 November 1974, also mentions the "Palestinian people".

So the claim that the EC invented the "Palestinian people", whether in 1979, 1980, or 1973, is simply false as a matter of historical fact.

Enveloping itself in the rhetoric of Virtue, Peace, Truth and Justice, the European Community led by France and Germany, resorted to this expedient to mitigate the peace accords between Egypt and Israel (March 1979) which it fought tooth and nail in order to save its Arab policy.

The effort wasted, the Arab world, sickened by the incapacity of its European peon to have the peace talks cancelled, hounded Egypt from the Arab League and interrupted the profitable relationships of the Euro-Arab league. Snubbed and humiliated by its Arab allies, the EC moved reluctantly towards recognition of this peace which it accepted against its will but avenged itself with the Declaration of Venice a few months later.

Here, citing no evidence at all, Ye'or claims that the EC opposed the Camp David peace accords and had fought tooth and nail against them.

Again, I visited newspaper archives to evaluate this claim. On Sept. 3, 1978, I found, in the Times, an article titled "Germans impress on their Syrian guest that Europe welcomes the Camp David peace initiative":

Dr Helmut Kohl, the west German opposition leader, has begged President Assad of Syria to use his influence to stop the shooting of Christians by the Arab peace-keeping force in Lebanon. The force is composed largely of Syrian troops.

Dr. Kohl's request was made during a talk with President Assad here yesterday evening. It was accompanied by appeals in the conservative newspaper Bild and from other Christian Democrats to end what one called "the cruel persecution of our Christian brothers" and the partly deliberate destruction of their homes and villages.

...

Although little has been disclosed of their discussions, government leaders are also thought to have raised the issue with President Assad on the second day of his five-day state visit. It is understood that he was told they were concerned about the whole situation in Lebanon.

The Government has seized the opportunity to explain why it and the whole European Community, of which West Germany currently has the presidency, welcome the Camp David talks which President Assad has so bitterly criticized.

It is clear that West German and Syrian positions are poles apart, so much so that President Scheel who had welcomed President Assad at a state banquet last night, ignored protocol and rose again after his guest's reply to emphasize that he did not agree with all the points President Assad had made.

The Syrian leader had described Egypt's peace initiative as an "isolated action" whose "regrettable results are taking place under our eyes."

So, yet again, the claim Ye'or makes is shown to be completely false as a matter of historical fact. The EC welcomed the Camp David peace initiative and tried to persuade Arab countries to participate in it and to facilitate it.

For reasons of time, I'm not going to translate Ye'or's whole article, debunking it bit by bit. Suffice to say that it is a hysterical, unfactual rant filled with Nazi metaphors, a few examples of which are quoted below just to give you the flavour:

To complete the Shoah, it was enough to reduce the Jewish state to dimensions that were tiny and indefensible...

But a detail comes to mind: is the EU going to provide the trains or lorries to deport hundreds of thousands of Israelis, the majority of them refugees from Europe and the Arab countries? Is it going to supply the same transports for animals and merchandise that were used for the same thing in 1940? Nostalgic for the good old days when the Jews were being deported, their homes, apartments and goods pillaged from Europe to Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya? Who will come to choose what? Who will decide between the looters? The UNRWA or Javier Solana who goes so far in his admiration of Arafat as to resemble him physically? Miguel Moratinos who begged the Arab delegates at the Euro-Arab meetings to give him the time to persuade Israel to perpetrate its own suicide? Who will be the commissioners responsible for making sure the deportation takes place properly, Védrine? Claire Short? Ashton?

Ye'or concludes with false claims about the recent Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe proposal on the genital mutilation of children.

The old hatreds of the years 1933-50 are unfolding in a Europe which is blinded and at the edge of the abyss. But it clings to a lifebuouy to create discord and diversion in its macabre ritual: the prohibition of Jewish circumcision, but not the circumcision prescribed by Islam.

First, as the article I quoted yesterday made clear, there was, regrettably, no proposal that circumcision should be banned. Second, there was no suggestion that Muslim circumcision should be permitted while Jewish circumcision was not. Yet again, these claims are utterly without foundation.

Why does this matter? Because Ye'or's book Eurabia has set the tone for much of the European wing of the Counterjihad movement. Fjordman, for example, has cited it approvingly. It shapes the worldview of many of those involved in resisting the advance of Islam. But as this article makes clear, Ye'or is a deeply unreliable guide to either historical or present-day events. Animated by an almost deranged zeal, she seems to feel entitled to conjure up "facts" that exist only in her imagination. Knowing that almost none of her readers will go and do the counter-research required to evaluate her claims, she can rely on their naivety, ignorance and blind trust in her good faith to have her preposterous conspiratorial screeds accepted as authentic accounts of history. It is interesting that Ye'or is the one responsible for popularising the term "dhimmi". I haven't read her books about more distant history yet, but I can't help wondering how reliable those are given that everything I have read of hers that I am capable of evaluating has failed the test.

It is clear that she is motivated by a deep-seated and only thinly disguised hatred for Europeans, as well as a passionate attachment to her own people and their own ancestral homeland. It does strike me as rather curious that her hatred for Europe and her attachment to Israel does not apparently extend as far as wishing to leave one and go and live in the other, but I suppose that's of secondary importance. What matters most of all is that the Europeans who have been duped into accepted Ye'or's warped worldview, and its emanations throughout the Counterjihad movement, wake up and realise that they have been suckered. The Ye'or interpretation of history is just another paranoid Jewish conspiracy theory that, like Marx's, indirectly, and probably subconsciously, expresses Jewish contempt for Europeans by attributing base and hateful motivations to them. It is essential that we Europeans detach ourselves mentally from the false constructs propagated by the Jewish-dominated part of the Counterjihad movement (almost all of it) and develop an authentically European opposition to Islam instead, grounded in our own interests and worldview.

A 15-year-old boy in Helsingborg has now been convicted now for assaulting and threatening another boy because of his blue eyes.

According to the district court, the 15-year-old asked a Swedish boy about his eye coluor, to which the Swede is said to have replied "bluish-green", an answer that the 15-year-old for an unknown reason found provocative.

"Big man are you?" asked the 15-year-old, then leaned over the table and gave the Swede a slap.

Two witnesses say they saw the 15-year-old deliver a blow to the Swedish boy and said he continued to beat him during a school break. The 15-year-old was convicted of illegal threats and petty assault and battery.

The 15-year-old himself denies the crime and claims that he was misunderstood because of language difficulties, as his first language is Arabic.

A blast ripped through a railway station in Volgograd in Russia’s south, killing at least 13 people. It was reportedly caused by a suicide bomber, who set off the bomb just before it could be discovered at a checkpoint.

The National Police have arrested the imam of Ourense mosque and the imam of the mosque in the municipality of Xinzo de Limia, in the same province, under the aegis of 'operación Laico' [Operation Secular], which has dismantled the biggest counterfeit clothes and shoes network known in Spain and resulted in a total of 99 detainees and the confiscation of a million items.

...The network was led by citizens of North African origin who had a dozen workshops in Portugal and the business was spread across all the regions of Spain, although it was concentrated in the largest cities.

The National Police worked together with the Portuguese authorities during 12 months of investigation, and managed to detect exports going as far afield as France.

Of almost 100 people arrested, 34 are Portuguese, 19 Moroccan, 37 Senegalese and nine Spanish.

...Those sent to prison include the imam of Xinzo de Limia, whom the police accuse of acting as one of the leaders of the conspiracy. This mosque received donations from the organisation of around 100,000 euros.

...The network had "area managers" in all of Spain. Part of the illicit money collected was hidden together with booklets and bank cards and other goods from the organisation in the mosques of Ourense and Xinzo de Limia.

A case could be made that Islam itself is a form of organised crime. Considering the numerous criminal conspiracies linked to mosques, it could also be argued that no more mosques should be allowed to be built and existing ones should be shut down. If we strip out the ideological element of what a mosque supposedly represents, and ask what would happen to any other organisation whose institutions were so consistently linked to criminal activity, there is no question that it would be shut down. Somehow, however, simply attaching the label "religion" to an organisation means that these rules do not apply.

On Monday afternoon, the police, alerted by neighbours, went to an apartment on Rue des Chardonneret in the working class district of Ronde-Couture. For several days, a goat had been kept there on the balcony. The officers had no difficulty in arranging for the animal to be handed over.

The inhabitants of the dwelling, of foreign origin, were receiving members of their family to celebrate Christmas. It appears it is the customer in the culture to offer a goat to one's hosts for Christmas, even if the theory of a sacrifice hasn't been completed ruled out by the police. For this operation, the animal protection association LISA was asked to be involved. For its volunteers who were present on Monday afternoon, there is no doubt it was a sacrifice.

Again according to LISA, neighbours are said to have also indicated that a nanny goat and a sheep were there in the preceding days. These animals were not found on Monday.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced on Friday that he would try to legally ban performances by French comic and actor Dieudonné, who has frequently been accused of anti-Semitism.

Dieudonné is best known for televised sketch comedy and a one-man show in Paris, in which he professes staunch anti-Israel views that many say amount to hate speech. He has also downplayed the significance of the Holocaust, calling commemorations “memorial pornography”.

“Despite a conviction for public defamation, hate speech and racial discrimination, Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala no longer seems to recognise any limits,” a statement released by Valls read. “Consequently, the interior minister has decided to thoroughly examine all legal options that would allow a ban on Dieudonné’s public gatherings, which no longer belong to the artistic domain, but rather amount to a public safety risk.”

‘Time to silence him’

Roger Cukierman, the president of CRIF, the main French Jewish lobby, applauded the decision in an interview with French television channel i>TELE.

“It’s a step in the right direction, because if we continue letting him do as he pleases, violence could result,” he said. “It’s time to silence him. He’s no longer a comic; he has become a peddler of hate.”

The latest controversy surrounding Dieudonné began when footage captured by a hidden camera planted in his theatre was broadcast on French television channel France 2 in mid-December.

Performing onstage, Dieudonné said about prominent French Jewish radio journalist Patrick Cohen: “Me, you see, when I hear Patrick Cohen speak, I think to myself: ‘Gas chambers…too bad [they no longer exist].”

Radio France, Cohen’s employer, announced on December 20 that it had alerted authorities that Dieudonné had engaged in “openly anti-Semitic speech”, and various French anti-racism watchdog groups filed complaints.

Friends on the far right

Dieudonné is also behind a hand gesture known as the “quenelle” – described as a sort of downward-pointing Nazi salute – that has become popular among some young people in France.

The French-born son of a Cameroonian father and a white French mother, the 47-year-old Dieudonné has a diverse legion of followers, though his main fans tend to be young French people who espouse “anti-system” views.

But the comic has also found support on the far-right political fringe; he counts Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of the far-right National Front party, as a close friend and has regularly invited well-known Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson onstage during his shows.

On 13 December, the comedian Dieudonné filed a complaint for defamation against X. This complaint relates to remarks made by the president of the LICRA association [League against Racism and Antisemitism], Alain Jakubowicz, who associates the "quenelle" with the "reverse Nazi salute signifying the sodomisation of the victims of the Shoah".

Hand on the shoulder and arm extended, this "salute", popularised by Dieudonné M'bala M'bala has a meaning that is highly ambiguous. For its detractors, it resembles the Nazi salute. For the comedian's fans, it is an anti-system provocation.

As far as I can tell, the gesture seems to have become a kind rallying symbol for the invader population against European indigenes. The "system" that they're think they're rebelling against is the system of European civilisation, as constructed by Europeans. Whatever you think of this guy, though, it's grotesque that they're now trying shut down comedy performances and outlaw a hand gesture. Then again, I suppose they've been doing that for a while.

UPDATE:

Nicolas Anelka could find himself in hot water after appearing to perform a controversial celebration during West Brom's 3-3 draw with West Ham.

After the French striker scored the Baggies' first goal he wheeled away with his right arm extended and his left hand on his right shoulder - mimicking a controversial gesture known as the quenelle.

Named after the word for an elongated creamed fish dumpling, the quenelle has stoked serious controversy in France since first being used by anti-establishment comedian Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala in 2005.

The decision to reject a Knesset member’s request to have a Christmas tree put up at the entrance to the parliament building was because of negative connotations the holiday symbol has for Jews, Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein said Thursday.

On Sunday, Edelstein announced that he had turned down a request from Hadash MK Hanna Swaid, an Arab Christian from the Galilee town of Eilaboun, to place a Christmas tree on prominent display, saying it was inappropriate.

On Thursday, Edelstein told Israel Radio the tree would dredge up bitter memories for Jews, and suggested there were other ways to send a seasonal greeting to Christians in Israel.

He also denounced Arab MKs for constantly testing the limits of the Jewish state. Edelstein said that if he had agreed to put up the tree, the next day there would have been a request to display a cross and a crescent alongside the symbolic menorah in the Knesset.

Swaid had asked that the tree be placed in a visible part of the Knesset, saying it would be “a gesture toward Christian members of Knesset and citizens of Israel, and a symbol of [Israel’s] ties to the Christian world generally.”

On Sunday, Edelstein’s office announced he had declined Swaid’s request.

“In response to your request that the Knesset erect at the House’s entrance a Christmas tree in honor of Christmas and the civil New Year, I respectfully reply that nothing prevents you from placing a tree in your office, or for your Knesset faction to place one in the faction room, but I do not believe it appropriate to order the erection of a Christmas tree as you requested,” Edelstein wrote.

Later that day, Swaid lamented that Edelstein’s response “didn’t even explain the decision,” and suggested the speaker had “faced pressure” from right-wing Jewish groups.

“I’m very disappointed at this response,” Swaid told The Times of Israel Sunday. “I don’t need to ask permission to place a Christmas tree in my private room. The expectation was that the speaker would respond to the core of my request, to highlight the pluralism and multiculturalism of the Knesset as an institution that represents all parts of the population.”

Last week, Swaid noted that the Knesset sometimes recognizes non-Jewish religious events and symbols, including hosting an annual iftar meal, a ceremonial feast following the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.

“How can a Christmas tree do harm to the State of Israel? I think this would have been a net gain,” he said.

I've previously noted the ritual of Muslim violence, in which jihad acts, including casual "street jihad", appear to be timed deliberately to "ruin" days that are sacred or special to non-Muslims. A few articles on the Occidental Observer site suggested that Jews were trying to do something similar with Christmas, "tainting" it by de-Christianising it or associating it with something unpleasant. "Bad Santa"-style Hollywood films were cited as evidence of this. (See here, here and here.) I have to admit I was a bit sceptical of this. But I did find it strange that the Daily Mail ran this Holocaust survivor recollection story on Boxing Day. After all, why then? The story doesn't seem to be associated with any current event.

There was also an example a few years ago in which Christmas trees had to be withdrawn from an airport after a rabbi threatened to sue.

So, what do you think? Is there a pattern of anti-Christian activity among Oriental peoples, and not just the ones who worship Allah?

The National Police have arrested a 43-year-old man, as the suspected perpetrator of the wounds suffered by two women, mother and daughter, around 10.30 pm yesterday, in Filiberto Villalobos Avenue. The suspected perpetrator of the acts, who has 29 previous arrests under 11 different identities, will appear in front of the Court of First Instance.

The officers responded to a 091 call indicating that some people were being attacked. Once they were there, according to witnesses, they established that when two women were walking their dog, an individual approached them and, without a word, grabbed the dog lead and started to pull it strongly until the dog was lifted from the ground, kicking it all the while.

When they tried to get it away from him, by also pulling on the lead, the individual started to shout in an unintelligible manner, punching both women in the face, for which they had to be treated later in hospital. The disturbance caused some passers-by to approach, the attacker then fleeing. The characteristics of the individual, of the negro race and Somali nationality, led to him being found immediately and arrested in the roundabout of the same avenue, which leads to the Carmen district.

Last September, the same man was responsible for an alteraction where Azafranal Street meets the Gran Vía, in which he shouted at various people, causing damage to a vehicle with a woman and two children inside, and later tried to strangle a one-and-a-half-year-old girl whose parents were taking her for a walk in a pram, by tying shoelaces around her neck.

The arrested man was extremely agitated, in a state of excitement and very violent "as if he had lost control of himself", said various witnesses. After he appeared in front of the Court of First Instance, he was ordered to be placed in preventive detention. However, he was already free despite being in an irregular situation in Spain.

On Boxing Day, jihadists posted a video on YouTube in which they swear allegiance to Isis, Al-Qaeda in Syria and Iraq. The demonstration took place in Oranjestraat and Parkstraat in the Center of The Hague. The original thrust of the protest was to stand up for Muslim prisoners who said they were arrested because of their faith. The video was posted for a short time and than removed. Journalist Harald Doornbos says on Twitter that the video was titled: “Followers of ISIS in the Netherlands”. According to Doornbos the video had the message "From the heart of the West in our Sheikh Abu Bakr Holland. We sacrifice our souls, sons and money for you. A banner in English read "democracy = hypocrisy', or democracy is hypocritical.“

"Shanty towns spreading in Stockholm. Around Stockholm there are small shack villages populated by poor European migrants. Social agencies estimate that there are now a total of some 30 active settlements in the capital. ...
Using plywood, plastic, inflatable boats and building materials some 20 shed-like buildings have been set up at Högdalen in southern Stockholm. ... several of the homes have fireplaces and simple insulation. A type of home that you might associate only with a shanty town in Africa."

Liliane Maury Pasquier chairs the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development.

For the past two months, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has been vilified as “anti-Semitic,” “anti-religious” and “insane” and has been accused of promoting “hate and racist trends in Europe ” for adopting, by overwhelming majority, a resolution on children’s right to physical integrity. As the head of the committee that unanimously approved the draft texts in June — after two parliamentary hearings and several committee discussions — I have been saddened by this reaction, much of which has been characterized by bad faith or ignorance about what we said. So I want to set the record straight.

PACE brings together legislators from 47 countries and speaks for 820 million Europeans. Its reports and campaigns have inspired many laws in its member states and a series of international treaties that have, among other things, pioneered the protection of children’s rights.

But pioneers are seldom liked and applauded, particularly on this issue. Our committee’s resolution on children’s right to physical integrity does not call for a ban on the circumcision of young boys, as many have claimed. The resolution calls on the Council of Europe’s member states to “clearly define the medical, sanitary and other conditions to be ensured for practices which are today widely carried out in certain religious communities, such as the non-medically justified circumcision of young boys.” Why? Because as Marlene Rupprecht, rapporteur of the assembly, pointed out in a September report, “there is evidence that unprofessional circumcisions may cause infections, organ curvatures, perforated urethra and, finally, additional operations, whilst even wrongly applied bandages can have severe consequences such as necrotic tissue and other irreversible damage. Some of the complications are regularly fatal.” The medical evidence presented in our hearings was clear.

The assembly has been criticized for including the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons in a list of violations of the physical integrity of children. Our resolution noted that “supporters of the procedures tend to present [it] as beneficial to the children themselves, despite clear evidence to the contrary.” This list also included female genital mutilation, early childhood medical interventions in the case of intersex children, and the submission to or coercion of children into piercings, tattoos or plastic surgery. All of these interventions permanently alter a child’s body in some form or another, only to very different degrees.

To be clear, the assembly never equated female genital mutilation and the circumcision of young boys. It simply called on member states to “initiate a public debate, including intercultural and interreligious dialogue, aimed at reaching a large consensus on the rights of children to protection against violations of their physical integrity according to human rights standards.” As Rupprecht noted in citing the need to differentiate between procedures: “There is certainly a clear line to be drawn between male circumcision . . . and female genital mutilation (FGM) which . . . is a procedure intended to control the sexual behaviour of girls and women throughout their lives.”

It is a basic tenet of human rights law that one right may well conflict with another. The classic case is the right to privacy vs. the right to free speech. Regarding the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons, children’s right to physical integrity conflicts with parents’ right to freedom of religion. As many of its resolutions show, the assembly has been a strong supporter of religious rights. But in this case, when considering the relative weight of the human rights in question, the assembly gave precedence to the rights of children.

There is not, and cannot be, a “right” to circumcise young boys. Children are not mini-beings with mini-human rights. By contrast, in an accompanying recommendation, our assembly invited European governments to consider making “children’s right to physical integrity” a continent-wide standard.

The assembly’s resolution cannot be rescinded or altered. However, as we hoped, debate is underway — though not always in the most focused or productive manner. (What does it say about the quality of opponents’ arguments if calling for a public debate is seen as a precursor to oppression and pogroms?) For our part, we will do our best to take that debate forward: On Jan. 28, my committee will hold a follow-up hearing on circumcision. We hope that Jewish and Muslim religious leaders, as well as medical experts, will come together to discuss this further.

Religious practices deserve the most profound respect — but not when they result in irreversible harm to children.

"What does it say about the quality of opponents’ arguments if calling for a public debate is seen as a precursor to oppression and pogroms?"

The same question could be asked of the Jewish response to my own recent discussion of the Jewish role in promoting immigration, diversity, multiculturalism, the criminalisation of free speech and the use of state power to influence the way people think. Hysteria, moralistic accusations and the paranoid victim mentality kick in immediately. It's hard not to feel contempt for a culture that so consistently produces such unreasoned responses to any attempts at rational debate.

See the book's preface in my post yesterday.
The book consists entirely of short essays, or position statements, on specific topics, mostly addressed to the "68ers" in a tone of passionate indignation.

The ideological roots of this movement seem to lie in the works of Guillaume Faye. He pioneered this notion of "identity" which seems to be similar if not identical to what I usually call "peoplehood". Its practical political purpose seems to be to relegitimate discussion of the genetic aspect of a people's uniqueness, by referencing ancestry, without getting bogged down in the murky waters of race. Again, this seems to parallel my own thoughts about the limitations of the concept of the "white race", which, in my view, constitutes just another form of intellectual genocide in that it erases the distinctiveness of all the peoples of Europe. The "identity" concept also allows for the affirmation of sub-national, "regional" particularities - Catalan, Breton, etc.

The book says nothing specifically about Jews or Free Speech. It opposes the EU but seems open to the idea of another form of European Confederation.

Their positioning on some of the major issues is as follows.

On the Nazis:

National Socialism determined your entire thinking. No one shaped your worldview more than Adolf Hitler.

Nazism was racist, so you wanted to be ‘anti-racist.’ Nazism was nationalist? Naturally, you became internationalist. It was militaristic, fascistic, and imperialistic, and so you became anti-military, anti-fascist and anti-imperialist. If Nazism promoted a belief in the traditional family, you had to damn that as well.

In this way, Adolf Hitler became your greatest role model.

On racism:

You seek to avenge yourselves by interpreting our affirmation of life and of Europe as racism.
*
But is everyone who believes that there are different peoples, cultures, and identities, and that this is good, really a racist?

We won’t let this label stick on us!

If you smear every affirmation of one’s own identity with accusations of racism, then everyone is a racist, always was a racist, and will always be a racist. Even you are no exception to this rule.

Yes, we could even accuse you of racism. Only in this way could one explain your pathological hatred of Europe.

On questions of foreign policy, they object to Europe's subservience to America.

American armies defended Europe and attacked everyone who threatened Europe, or who the Americans claimed to be doing so.

You could stand by and point accusingly at the murdering Americans, while at the same time being glad that they took the fighting off your hands. Despite your hypocritical rejection of the Americans, you still remain in an alliance with them.

What they demanded in return, namely the participation of European soldiers in American crusades, seemed to you a reasonable price. So it was that the sons of Europe died in lands where they had no business being in the first place.

...Europe needs its own army. A capable and organised fighting force, whose goal is not the invasion of other countries, but the protection of European neutrality on a global scale.

That which Switzerland is to Europe, Europe must become to the world. A strong and independent region that attacks no one, and that no one dares to attack.

...NATO has long passed its expiration date.

America won’t help us in the future, and we identitarian Europeans have no interest in fighting America’s battles. It’s therefore up to us to find a new way.

Europe needs its own army. A capable and organised fighting force, whose goal is not the invasion of other countries, but the protection of European neutrality on a

And, unlike the Jewish-dominated Counterjihad movement, they show no interest in intervening in the Middle East.

Wars, conflicts, and hate that persist for decades are the result when different peoples are forced to be together in the same territory. Thanks to you, a similar fate threatens Europe.

In the war for the Middle East, however, we remain neutral. Neither party is good or evil. Both peoples must fight, because they can’t do otherwise. We understand this and hope that Europe is spared similar conflicts. We struggle for peace.
For we are generation identity.

On Islam:

We don’t commit the error of many conservatives who declare Islam to be their absolute enemy. We don’t believe that one should try and convert Muslims to so-called ‘Western values’ — quite the opposite! We neither want to disturb the identity of Muslims, nor do we want to launch crusades against the East as you did.

We condemn neither Muslims nor Islam. Here we are a thousand times more tolerant than you ever were. We neither hate nor demonise. We don’t claim to have found the absolute truth, but recognise the unique and legitimate truths of each and every culture.
Yet in some matters, we brook no argument.

The presence of millions of Muslims in Europe represents a continuing threat to the peace of our continent. Not because the Muslims are the embodiment of pure evil, but because your multicultural society doesn’t work.

Some of the historical pronouncements in the text strike me as jejune. Nonetheless, youthful simplicity has its charm and its utility. Attaching a counter-current, rebellious "cool" factor to European nationalism may be a necessary part of the process in bringing this madness to an end. Although I am more critical of Islam than they seem to want to be, I fail to see how this movement can be anything other than a good thing. Unlike the "Defence League" movements, which are strongly influenced, if not remote controlled, by people on the other side of the Atlantic, many of Middle Eastern origin, this movement is at least authentically European. And getting a manifesto published in book form shows a degree of organisation and ideological verve none of the Defence Leagues have yet attained, nor are likely to.

At around 100 pages, the book is very short and, given that, quite expensively priced (£4.70 on Kindle, £11 in paper form). Still, at least you know it's going to a good cause. Kindle link here.

The 7th European Commission-Israel seminar on the fight against anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia was held in Brussels last week, bringing together officials, diplomats and experts from both Israel and the European Union.

The annual seminar marked an opportunity to exchange information and good practice in particular related to the outcome of the fourth Global Forum on the fight against anti-Semitism, which Israel hosted in Jerusalem in May 2013, and the recently published survey on anti-Semitism by the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency. Participants also discussed the fight against racist hate speech online and training on the Holocaust and human rights education for EU officials.

The event was opened by Mr Paul Nemitz, Director for Fundamental rights and Union citizenship at the European Commission's Justice Directorate-General, and Ambassador David Walzer, Head of the Israeli Mission to the EU.

North African students are being invited to apply for scholarships to study in Europe under the Erasmus Mundus - Al Idrisi II Programme. The programme is open to nationals from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, with scholarships for undergraduate, master and doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows as well as academic and administrative staff wishing to join credit transfer or full degree programmes or to perform short stays for research, teaching, training or other cooperation activities.

The first call under the programme opened on 15 November 2013 and will close on 20 January 2014.

The scholarship covers a tuition fee waiver, a monthly allowance, travel and health insurance and expenses for one economy class round trip.

Notice the graphic from the website shows an inverted map of the Mediterranean with the Islamic countries on top.

The Erasmus Mundus - Al Idrisi II project takes its name from the famous medieval geographer, cartographer and botanist أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي ( Abū Abd Allāh Muhammad al-Idrīsī). He is the author of one of the most important works of medieval Geography نزهة المشتاق افي اختراق الآفاق‬ (kitāb nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq; Journey of one who is eager to traverse horizons) and Botany ‫كتاب الجامع ﻷشتات النبات‬ (kitāb al-ǧāmiʿ li-aštāti ʾn-nabāt; Compendium of Plant Species).

The logo of the Erasmus Mundus - Al Idrisi II project is derived from one of the most famous maps drawn by Al Idrisi (see below). It shows mostly Europe, Africa and Asia. Please note that the north is represented at the bottom and the south at the top. This reflects quite nicely the new views and change of perspective that Erasmus Mundus - Al Idrisi II aims to promote.

The project coordinator (Universidad de Granada) will establish a Project Management Unit (PMU) at its International Office that is assisted by a Co-Coordination Unit (CCU) set up at the Université Hassan 1er (Settat, Morocco).

A thrill of satisfaction recently went through the Counterjihad community following news that Angola had banned Islam. Initial reports, which may have been exaggerated, said that mosques were being closed and destroyed. This evidently provoked salivations of delight among those involved in resisting the onward march of Islam. But it also begs a question: if this is what the Counterjihad community wants, why do none of them say that? Why do none of them advocate policies that even remotely resemble the “Angola solution”?

Whenever anti-Islam activists are pressed to distil their concerns down into some practical proposals that could be adopted as policies by a political party and then implemented at the government level, what do we get? Nothing of consequence. No “mainstream” party or figure or movement within the Counterjihad community has ever proposed anything that would make any significant difference to the islamisation of European societies currently underway. Why is that? Very simply, they are imprisoned by bad ideas. Indeed, they are imprisoned by the very same bad ideas that caused the problem in the first place.

A recent editorial from Lars Hedegaard on Dispatch International is illustrative of the moral and intellectual failure of the Counterjihad movement, or at least of those who constitute the public face of it.

The political terms left and right came into existence in 1789 during the French Revolution. Members of the National Assembly who supported the king sat to the right of the speaker, and revolutionaries to his left.
To the right belonged the representatives that to a greater or smaller extent were in favor of keeping the privileges of the nobility and the priesthood. The leftists advocated freedom, equality and brotherhood and wanted to abolish all special privileges.
If we apply this criterion, there is nothing right wing about Dispatch International. Quite the contrary: We belong to the far left as we are determined foes of any discrimination and believe that we should all be equal before the law. This implies, of course, that we must all have the same duties and that nobody should have the right to invoke preferential treatment with reference to social status, ethnicity, race, religion, political ideology or sexual orientation.

So let’s run with this for a while. Let’s pretend that the governments of Europe stopped actively discriminating in favour of Muslims and stopped giving them preferential treatment. Would that solve the problem?

No, it wouldn’t. Muslims would go on colonising our countries at their current astonishing pace. Eventually they would achieve demographic ascendancy, at first locally, then nationally. With that, they would elect their own Islamically-minded politicians who, perfectly legally, through the democratic process, would sweep aside all the carefully-wrought “human rights” protections and simply impose their will on the rest of us, discriminating against non-Muslims and mocking our demands for equality.

The approach proposed by the the better-known activists and organisations within the Counterjihad movement leads inevitably to the eclipse of European civilisation and the triumph of Islam. They cannot shed their “Be Nice” approach, partly because it has been so deeply instilled into them, partly because they have lived comfortable lives without the need for serious struggle, and partly because they are afraid of the criticism a more radical breach with the ideological status quo would provoke.

When people in the Counterjihad movement react to the islamisation of their countries, they are reacting only to the symptoms of the problem that afflicts us, not its underlying cause. Insofar as they make any effort to grasp how this catastrophe could have come about, they fumble for half-baked conspiracy theories, like “It’s all a plot by the EU in league with the Arabs” or “It’s all a plot by Communists” or, in some cases, “It’s all a plot by Jews”, the latter rarely heard overtly in the Counterjihad movement because of its domination by Jews, but surfacing in comment sections. This isn’t to say that the EU, Communists and Jews have not played facilitating roles in the islamisation of European societies. But trying to pin it on them specifically as part of some dastardly plot can only end up being reductive, if not absurd.

The truth is that the genocide currently being inflicted on the peoples of Europe was implicit in the ideas that triumphed in the Enlightenment, ideas that were articulated by the “philosophes” in the latter half of the 18th century and were then exalted by the French revolutionaries, ideas of which Lars Hederberg still apparently approves, and he is far from alone. This ensemble of bad ideas constitutes the intellectual prison in which modern western Europeans have lived out their lives. When an ancient European peoplehood was replaced by a bit of paper with the word “Citoyen” written on it, the genocide we are currently living through was already foreordained.

In a recent interview, the French writer Renaud Camus makes clear his realisation that “Equality” is a chimerical dogma that, in practice, translates into genocide for all the peoples of Europe.

What did you think of the controversy surrounding the installation of a Christmas crib in Villefranche-de-Rouergue railway station? [see here]

I think that equality, if we let it, will destroy national identity, as it destroyed schools and culture. Let's not deceive ourselves: why is the issue of secularism coming back to the front and centre? Because good republicans see it as a rampart against the islamisation of society. But this badly constructed rampart is going to fall back on them and on us. It will work like the natalist laws, which actually speed up population replacement. To ban the Islamic veil, they think they have to ban all religious symbols at the same time. And we accept that the visibility of Christianity is scorned in the vain hope that this concession will limit the visibility of Islam, which is more evident every day. This conception of secularism is a fatal trap, but, behind it, it is equality itself that must be called into question. Equality, once it leaves it strictly legal basis - the legal equality of citizens - sweeps away and destroys everything it touches: the family, the cultural sphere, national identity. If we want France to survive, there can be no equality in France between those who are French and those who aren't; between those who form part of our culture, our civilisation, our traditions; and those who are foreign to them; between the religion of our fathers and the religion of our colonisers.

The Generation Identity movement made headlines in France last year by occupying the mosque under construction in Poitiers. Since then, it has been spreading around Europe. I have seen evidence of its activity in Germany and the Netherlands. Perhaps it has reached other countries too. This book is a kind of manifesto for the movement, although they declared "This isn't a manifesto, it's a declaration of war."

Here is the preface to the book.

Europe is in a deep crisis. This crisis weighs more heavily than the division of Europe by the Iron Curtain, or the destruction of our continent during both world wars.

This crisis is fundamentally different from others that we have lived through. It is a crisis of the European spirit.

After the National Socialist reign of terror, our continent fell sick and lost its will to live.

The next generation, the ’68ers, hated and condemned everything that had been passed down to them: every tradition, every belief in their own kind, every will toward an authentic identity.

This belief that one’s own kind is worthless — that cultures, peoples, and families count for nothing and need to be rooted out — threatens to end Europe’s existence as a continent for Europeans.

The people of Europe have lost their will to live; they are dying out, because they don’t want to thrive any longer, because they don’t want to have any more children, and because they’ve forgotten what it means to stand up and fight for one’s own.
The ideology of the ’68ers has infected Europe. It is a sickness that will kill us if we don’t find a cure. Even if we’ve lost our will to power, our neighbours haven’t, and they’re already penetrating our borders and occupying the places that we freely surrender to them.

The ideology of the ’68ers is divorced from reality and cannot endure in the long run. It will pass with time. Either we Europeans will recover and free ourselves from it, or it will drag Europe into the abyss, and we will both disappear together.

Never before in human history have foreign peoples invaded to such an extent into a populated region without encountering any resistance from its indigenous residents. That Europe is coming to an end after thousands of years of a proud history is not due to the strength of the invaders, but rather to our unwillingness to fight for our own survival.
The ’68ers have made affirming our own identity into something bad. They’ve associated it with war, destruction, mass murder and violence.

They’ve made us so doubtful of our own self-worth that we don’t dare to defend ourselves; we silently endure whatever others do to us.

We’re so afraid of being labelled ‘racists’ that we unconditionally accept anti-European racism.

When the ’68ers took power in Europe, they didn’t just allow the mass immigration of foreign peoples into Europe; they actively promoted this development. They called it multiculturalism.

We young Europeans grew up on a continent that doesn’t belong to us anymore. We have only known a culture in collapse, our peoples at the ends of their lives. We had to withstand the attempts of our parents and grandparents to uproot us and make us into ‘individuals’ without any identity. They want us to rejoice that Europe is falling, to accept and submit to its defeat. But we won’t. We rebel.

A new political current is sweeping through Europe. It has one goal, one symbol, and one thought: Identity.

It is the current of our generation. It represents European youth. A youth that wants the one thing that the ideology of the ’68ers can’t give it: a future.

Emanating from France, that proud and noble land, this new current is sweeping countless Europeans along with it. It is taking form and proclaiming the end of the era of the ’68ers, a new epoch, the age of a new generation: generation identity.

Our generation is rising up to dethrone the ’68ers. This book is no simple manifesto. It is a declaration of war. A declaration of war against everything that makes Europe sick and drives it to ruin, against the false ideology of the ’68ers. This is us declaring war on you.

Two thirds of Africans dream of living in Europe. The genocide researcher Gunnar Heinsohn wonders: how much longer can the old continent fend people off with patrol boats, observation planes and border fences?

It's a hundred years since there lived in Germany and France almost as many people as on the entire African continent (110 million to 120 million). Since 1913, however, the circumstances have fundamentally changed. In 2013 there are not only an imposing 7.1 billion people in the whole world, but Africa has seven times as many as the Paris-Berlin axis (1072 million compared to 145 million).

And many Africans now live among us. West of the Rhine there may now be at least 5 million, including 3.2 million from the Arab north. East of it there may be a million, around half of whom are Arabs.

In any event, we can foresee whether the refugees who drowned in front of Lampedusa will influence the wish of the Africans to immigrate. Most likely hardly at all. Because, in Africa, they will only weigh the deadly slowness of the Europeans in rescuing refugees against the rapid local massacres and genocides, in which, after the withdrawal of the white overlords, it was not hundreds or thousands that lost their lives, but around 18 million (Encyclopedia of Genocides). Just as Europeans, when they had Somalia-style birthrates, slaughtered mainly other Europeans, so most victims of Africans come mostly from the same neighbourhood.

To be added to that: Between 2010 and 2012 – because of lack of borrowing capacity – the number of undernourished people grew from 175 to 240 million people in Africa alone, while, according to information from the FAO, the number fell drastically everywhere else.

The continent that has nine times as much land as India with fewer inhabitants is not able to establish an economy with pledges, interest and money. Therefore we should not be surprised that according to a PEW poll, two-thirds of those remaining in Africa - around 700 million people - would also like to come here. Those who fought for their lives in the boat that was set on fire and then sank off Lampedusa constituted less than one millionth of their number.

The flows of refugees will not stop. On the contrary: they will increase further

Although the growth of population is slowing down, it is still increasing strongly. By 2050 the earth will have to provide for 9.1 billion people. But while Germany and France are ageing, forty times as many people will then be living in Africa as in the core countries of the EU (2100 million compared to 150 million). How many Africans there will then be among the Europeans can only be estimated. A figure of 15 to 20 million in Germany and France alone will surely be close to the mark. Assuming their wish to emigrate remains unchanged and that there continue to be no credit-worthy assets south of the Sahara, in 35 years around 1.4 billion Africans will be trying to get into the First World.

The kind of dynamic that will emerge from that can be foreseen with a look at the 19th century. Between 1800 (world population: 1 billion) and 1900 (1.7 billion), Great Britain grew - after the defeat of France - to become the dominant world power. Australia and New Zealand were built up in place of the lost eastern coasts of the United States. At the same time, the British established a string of colonies from North to South across Africa. This succeeded not only due to the most modern industries and weapons of that era, but because a then unprecedented growth in the population by a factor of 3.6 (10 to 36 million) on the home islands alone (that is ignoring the simultaneous emigration) allowed whole continents to be subjugated. The territories of the later German empire experienced a growth factor of "only" 2.5 (22 to 55 million) in the same century, also claiming their place in the sun.

After 1945 Europe – where birthrates fell by half in 1915 and then again after 1970 – lost its areas of domination. In its place, birthrates in the former colonies then first began to really take off. There the population is increasing not only by a factor of 3, but by 10 and more. The growth in human potential is measured not only in 8 figures, but in 9: in hundreds of millions. Not only in Africa.

They are flooding from the former colonies not only to Italy, but also Greece. Hopefuls from Asia are also arriving there. Especially youths from the Islam trio of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, are reaching Europe's shores via Turkey. In 1900 the territories of these three states had only as many inhabitants as the German empire (around 55 million). But in 2050 they will have 550 million. Many of them will also dream of joining their then 75 million contemporaries between the Mosel and Neiße (Germany).

At the same time the fast-ageing west is paying many billions so that ten European women will raise 14 or 15 children instead of 13. Alongside that, the costs for patrol boats, observation planes and borders fences are exploding in the south and east. It will be politically interesting when the grey hairs acknowledge that increasing people here and fending off people there can no longer be paid for and both strategies can be kept going for only a few years, no longer decades. Then the EU will fall apart and new national models will emerge.

Some will let in migrants in a targeted way, but otherwise secure their borders, in order to be able to maintain minimum social and civil standards. Japan, Singapore, Canada and Australia provide examples of this. Scandinavia could follow first with a new Kalmar Union. Other states will continue as before. But by doing that they will run the risk of social, religious and ethnic conflicts coming to a head and having their top performers moving to more stable states. Illustrative examples are not only Detroit or Marseilles, but Berlin or Bremen here in Germany.

A Muslim youth group and a neighborhood authority led two separate anti-Santa campaigns on the eve of Christmas in Turkey.

The Istanbul University branch of a group called Anatolia Youth Association (AGD) released an illustration of a Muslim youth punching Santa Claus in the face and announced that it would make a press statement against Christmas on Dec. 26 in Istanbul.

The group announced the event with a statement titled “Muslim, return to yourself!” adding that “Christmas is a Christianity practice.” The group also criticized the celebration of New Year’s Day, saying that the two dates were “mixed” and “united.” It claimed that celebrating Christmas and New Year’s Day was “wrong” and constituted “a blow dealt to Muslimism.”

Earlier this week, the Şirinevler muhtar, the head of the neighborhood, hung a banner making it clear that Santa Claus was not welcome on their streets.

“As in recent years, Santa Claus will not be coming to Şirinevler since he is nothing to do with our traditions and our culture,” muhtar Galip Karayiğit said in the statement. “[Turk legend character] Dede Korkut will come to our houses again, and will teach our children that they did not come into this world for pleasure, that they came to distribute justice.”

Moscow, December 23, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has expressed concerns about Islamists' activities in Moscow.

"The increase in the number of migrants, primarily from Central Asia and the Caucasus, in Moscow has increased the risk of ethnic conflicts," the patriarch said at the Moscow Diocese assembly, according to the Moscow Patriarchate website.

Many migrants have radical views and "are recruited by extremist and terrorist organizations, sometimes right in Moscow," the patriarch said, adding that such propaganda has intensified among Slavic youth, including in educational establishments, prisons, sports groups, and social networking sites.

The patriarch said pseudo-Islamic radicals, whose number is in the thousands on Moscow, "provoke ethnic and religious conflicts to increase Islamophobia, which draws new members to their organizations."

"The radicals are extremely negative to Orthodox faith: they killed six Orthodox priests, including Moscow priest Daniil Sysoyev, in the past 15 years," the patriarch said.

He also said that people are often recruited by extremist organizations and calls for "a jihad against infidels" are made in mosques or near them.

"The creation of a favorable atmosphere on the issue of construction of mosques on the territory where Orthodox population prevails directly depends on ethnic relations in every specific place, the level of ethnic crime and terrorism," the patriarch said.

The primate of Russian Church said he is hoping that the city will get rid of "enclaves of lawlessness, that the problems of illegal migration and impudent behavior by some migrants will be resolved, that the activities by some saboteurs and extremists can be curbed."

The patriarch also called for special attention to be given to situations when girls from an Orthodox culture who marry Muslim men find themselves members of polygamous families against their will, and if they divorce their children are forcibly taken form them or they are made to raise their children Muslim like their fathers. The patriarch believes there is a need for a balanced approach to the issue of christening children secretly from their Muslim fathers, adding that "it is very desirable that both parents give their consent to the christening."

I've written quite a few times about the professional deceiver who goes by the name Denis McShane (real name Denis Matyjaszek). Finally, he will face justice, but only for one of his pettier deceptions. It's a bit like Al Capone being caught for fiddling his taxes.

Disgraced former minister Denis MacShane was today sentenced to six months in prison for falsely claiming £13,000 in expenses.

The ex-Labour MP pleaded guilty to false accounting at the Old Bailey after filing 19 bogus receipts for 'research and translation' services.

MacShane, 65, used the money to fund a series of trips to Europe, including one occasion when he went to Paris to judge a literary competition.

The former politician, who wore a dark suit with a blue striped tie, said 'cheers' as the sentence was delivered today, adding 'quelle surprise' as he was led from the dock.
Mr Justice Sweeney told MacShane his dishonesty had been 'considerable and repeated many times over a long period', adding: 'You have no one to blame but yourself.'

The court heard that MacShane had even used false accounting to reclaim money for legitimate expenses rather than going through the proper channels.

Very few people appreciate the magnitude of the catastrophic influence this man has had on Britain. As president of the National Union of Journalists in the 1970s, he presided over the introduction of the NUJ Guidelines on Race Reporting, which instituted the politically correct concealment of alien origins that has now become a standard throughout Europe. I believe he himself was the author of these guidelines which remain only slightly altered today. (see previous posts about this here and here).

MacShame served as MP for Rochdale, where some of the most grotesque activities of the Muslim child rape gangs took place. He said nothing about this until the story could no longer be suppressed. Nor did journalists say anything about it for many years, constrained by the professional guidelines MacShame himself had put in place. During the years in which journalists and other professionals maintained this shameful silence until the story finally broke, dozens, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of vulnerable young British girls were groomed, raped, prostituted and sometimes murdered because the people who were supposed to protect them weren't doing their jobs, either sincere devotees of the "anti-racist" cause or constrained against their will by professional guidelines like those MacShame had framed.

MacShame did sometimes speak up to criticise overt expressions of "Islamism". Indeed, he exhibited all the behavioural patterns we typically associate with Our Friends From the East. Although vigorous in his promotion of multiculturalism, immigrationism and the suppression of free speech, he ceded to none in his passionate activism against "antisemitism".

Of Polish origins, MacShame disguised this through his adoption of his mother's name MacShane, rather than his real name Matyjaszek. He claims to be a Catholic. I don't know whether he has any Jewish ancestry, but he always displayed a curious closeness to favoured Jewish causes. Indeed, finally caught out, he brandished his commitment to "antisemitism" like it was some pitiful shield against his critics. Doctor Johnson once declared patriotism to be the last refuge of a scoundrel. Today, anti-anti-semitism appears to have replaced it.

"Clearly I deeply regret that the way I chose to be reimbursed for costs related to my work in Europe and in combating antisemitism, including being the Prime Minister's personal envoy."

I first came across his work as a journalist and campaigner when I was living in Paris in the early 1990s and when his centrist, pro-European, anti-totalitarian position was deeply unfashionable and New Labour was yet to be invented. I did not always agree with him but, unlike many on the left, he at least reached the positions he took by thinking them through.

He has been one of the community’s greatest champions

But I only got to know him properly when I began writing about the rise of political Islam in Britain. As someone who had taken the time to read into the subject, he was one of the few politicians on the left who grasped the authoritarian nature of political movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East and Jamaat-e-Islami in South Asia.

His campaigning against antisemitism has always been similarly rooted in an understanding of its historical and intellectual roots.

We British have always been suspicious of people like Denis MacShane: academic, multilingual, “foreignish”. He is the very definition of “too clever by half”, a crime far worse in some people’s eyes than expenses fiddling.

A year ago, I wrote in these pages that the Jewish community needed to decide if it wished to stand by one of its greatest champions after he resigned as MP for Rotherham. His disgrace is greater now and there is every reason to feel disappointed in Denis and even let down. There are those who will suggest that the causes he espoused are somehow morally poisoned by the crimes to which he has admitted.

There are certainly some who will draw comfort from the fact that such an active campaigner has been removed from the field.

I have no doubt that, whatever happens, Denis MacShane will be back. He has reinvented himself before and he will do it again, perhaps under his original name, Denis Matyjaszek. But, for now, others must enter the rather large space he vacates fighting racism and totalitarianism. His causes are pure, even if Denis MacShane is less so.

Made a privy counsellor in 2005, he became a UK delegate to the Council of Europe and the Nato parliamentary assembly and went on to chair the inquiry panel of the all-party parliamentary group against antisemitism.

...Last month, MacShane said he "fully accepted" his error and said this was why "I have been apologising non-stop for four years. I made no personal gain of any sort. What I did was worse than a crime, it was a stupid error. It ended my political life, but I shall continue to combat xenophobia, antisemitism and the manic populism which unless checked will lead Britain out of Europe."